The NYT: Apologist for the US/Israeli Killing Machines
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
The Times supports the US/Israeli imperial partnership, their so-called special relationship, their declared and undeclared wars, their high crimes of war and against humanity, US worldwide imperial rampaging, Israeli apartheid ruthlessness - while pretending its reporting is even-handed.
The self-styled newspaper of record never met a US, NATO, or Israeli high crime it didn’t go all-out to suppress - blaming victims for horrendous crimes committed against them, operating as a mouthpiece for imperial lawlessness.
Since Israel imposed unlawful blockade on Gaza a dozen years ago, solely for political reasons, suffocating its people, destroying the Strip’s economy, creating festering humanitarian crisis conditions, waging war on its two million people without declaring it, the NYT defended the indefensible.
It continues to blame Hamas and other Gazans for Israeli high crimes committed against them, pretending cold-blooded Israeli murder, along with occasional cross-border incursions and terror-bombings, constitute self-defense.
Despite what they’ve endured for years, along with world community indifference toward their suffering, doing nothing to end it, their actions are nonviolent, armed only with extraordinary courage against a ruthless occupier, threatening no one.
Imagine if the tables were turned, if Gazan snipers mobilized along the border with Israel were lethally shooting hundreds of nonviolent Israelis, wounding thousands more, many seriously - how would the Times, other US media, and world community react!
The answer needs no elaboration. The Times and rest of the US major media establishment reports one way on Israel - polar opposite on its victims, notably Palestinians.
Last June, Israeli snipers murdered 21-year-old voluntary Palestinian paramedic Razan al-Najjar in cold blood – threatening no one, shot in the neck and back, an exploding dum dum bullet destroying her heart, killing her instantly.
Clearly identified as a first-responder medic in the field by her white attire, she was treating wounded Gazans well inside Israel’s repressive border fence when lethally shot – a willful act of murder, nothing accidental about it.
According to the Times, she was part of weekly protests Israel calls “violent…aimed at destroying their country, to which lethal force is a legitimate response as a last resort.”
The cold hard truth is polar opposite the above Big Lie. Weekly Great March of Return protests have been peaceful each Friday for the past nine months, posing no threat to Israeli soldiers or civilians.
Their cause is eminently just. They’re nonviolent protests are all about wanting their fundamental rights affirmed under international law respected by Israel and the world community. They’re about wanting suffocating/illegal blockade ended.
Longstanding Israeli policy unjustifiably justifies live fire against nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators, causing countless thousands of casualties, many victims killed or maimed for life – physically and/or emotionally scared, young children especially traumatized.
There’s nothing accidental about what’s gone on since March 30 for 40 consecutive Fridays. An earlier IDF statement said “nothing was carried out uncontrolled.”
“Everything was (and continues to be) accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed” – the statement later deleted because of its frankness.
The Times whitewashed cold-blooded Israeli murders and much more, saying “each side is locked into an unending and insolvable cycle of violence” - a bald-faced Big Lie. Violence is one-sided - by Israeli soldiers against peaceful Gazan protesters.
The Times: “The Palestinians trying to tear down the fence are risking their lives to make a point, knowing that the protests amount to little more than a public relations stunt for…the militant movement…Hamas.”
Fact: At most, a handful of Gazan protesters approached Israel’s virtual imprisoning barrier, separating Gaza from the Jewish state.
Fact: During protests over the past nine months, no one on the Israeli side was threatened or harmed. Around 225 Gazans were murdered in cold-blood, about 25,000 injured, hundreds losing limbs because of serious wounds - willfully inflicted by Israeli snipers, freely firing on defenseless Gazans threatening no one.
Surprisingly, the Times admitted that Najjar’s “shooting appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished.” Yet the admission was overwhelmed by the volume of material about her, irrelevant to her murder by Israeli soldiers.
There’s no ambiguity about what happened to Najjar, nor about Israeli high crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - viciously persecuted for not being Jewish, gunned down or otherwise harmed by Israeli forces at their discretion, accountably almost never forthcoming, nor against settler violence and vandalism.
While admitting that Rajjar’s shooting wasn’t accidental, the Times called her “the star of her own drama,” adding “(s)he lied about her credentials, pretending to be a college student.”
“She obsessed over backbiting and jealousy within her social circle (with) more on her mind…to make a name for herself” - instead of describing her as I did saying:
She was a volunteer paramedic, an angel of mercy, in harm’s way aiding the wounded, her life lost helping others.
In a video clip, Najjar said “I act as a human shield, as a rescuer for the injured on the front lines.”
Twisting her remark for propaganda purposes, Israel claimed she said “I am here on the front lines, and I act as a human shield” – distorting her words, falsely portraying her as a terrorist.
Palestinians honored her as an “angel” and “merciful martyr” – her life lost trying to save others, one of countless human tragedies at the hands of a ruthless occupier.
The Times suppressed how Israeli soldiers continue to brutalize nonviolent, unarmed protesters threatening no one - targeting them with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets able to cause serious injuries, and toxic tear gas.
No Gazans were killed or wounded throughout weeks of protests accidentally, including young children, journalists, and paramedics like Najjar - willfully and maliciously targeted, some killed, most others injured.
Israel operates like Washington. Their rules of engagement permit anything goes, the human toll of no consequence, accountability virtually never forthcoming.
Instead of laying blame where it belongs entirely, the Times whitewashes US, NATO and Israeli high crimes - holding IDF snipers responsible for Najjar’s murder a rare exception.
Aged-21 with much to live for, she put herself in harm’s way to help wounded Palestinians.
The Times went to extraordinary lengths to ferret out information about her background - producing a near-4,700 word article about her, unrelated to her courage under fire and dedication to help Palestinians in need.
That’s all that matters, the rest a way to tarnish, belittle, and diminish her courage when high praise alone should have been featured in the Times piece - the way it would have been written if about an Israeli under similar circumstances.
Six Times reporters contributed to the article about Najjar. One alone could have portrayed her accurately and honorably as an angel of mercy - her life snuffed out by Israeli gunmen, unaccountable for cold-blooded murder time and again.
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